Page 50 of What the Hex
“Still fair.”
Apart from the twitching at the corner of his lips, King ignored him. “My friend here wanted to thank you for helping him at the last fan meet. Do you remember Owen?”
Nita’s expression slowly morphed from irritation to recognition. “Of course! I didn’t know you were coming back. How are you?”
The witch looked a little pale, but he pasted on a smile. “I’m great. How are you?”
“Can’t complain. So, you wanted to thank me for something?”
“Yeah, I was really struggling with deciding on my major, but you said I should do what I love. So, I’ve decided to major in graphic design.”
Ah, so that’s what they’d been talking about in the security footage. Damn, how young was this kid?
“That’s fantastic! I know you’re going to be great at it, and when you graduate, I expect a discount on your services.”
Owen laughed, and some of the tension drained from his shoulders. “That goes without saying.” He took a deep breath and extended his right hand. “So, thank you for listening.”
“It was my pleasure.” Batting his hand away, Nita pulled him into a tight hug. “I’m so proud of you.”
While still technically physical contact, maintaining it for any length of time without coming off as creepy was going to be a problem. Not knowing what else to do, King flung his arms around both of them.
“We’re all proud of you! Group hug!”
Thankfully, Arlo had no reservations, but Storm still held back.
“Uh, King? Should you be touching him?”
“I’ll explain later. Just get in here.”
After another second of hesitation, Storm wrapped his arms around all four of them. King just prayed it worked.
When they finally broke apart, everyone stood in a loose circle around Nita, watching her for any signs that the hex had been lifted. At first, nothing happened. Her face was scrunched, and her eyes kept darting around the group, but that was probably because they were all staring at her like a bunch of psychos.
Slowly, however, her expression changed, fell, and her gaze turned soft and unfocused. “Oh, no,” she whispered. “Kief.” Then her head popped up, her eyes rounded, and she began digging furiously into her pocket for her phone. “I have to go.”
“Kief?” Arlo asked as they watched her dart off toward the registration desks. “That’s rough. Can you imagine introducing yourself, and everyone thinking you have a lisp?”
“There’s nothing wrong with having a lisp,” King argued.
“Yeah, but an accidental one because your parents named you Kief? Come on!”
“It’s probably short for Kiefer,” Owen said. “You know, like the actor.”
“Oh, right. Or the yogurt.”
King rolled his eyes. “That’s Kefir.”
“Whatever. Tomato, tomato.” And he pronounced it the same both times.
Deciding Arlo had received enough attention for one day, King turned to Owen. “Thank you for helping Nita.”
“I’m sorry this happened in the first place.” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his ripped jeans and hung his head. “I guess thanks for not arresting me.”
“Out of curiosity, how old are you?”
“I just turned eighteen last month.”
Poor fucking kid. “Well, good luck with college. I’m sure you’re going to make a hell of a graphic designer.”